Sichuan Boasts World's Largest Population of Artificially-bred Giant Pandas

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, March 13, 2003

Sichuan Boasts World's Largest Population of Artificially-bred Giant Pandas

The world's largest population of artificially-bred giant pandas, numbering 80 altogether, now lives in southwest China's Sichuan Province, according to the Sichuan forestry bureau.

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The world's largest population of artificially-bred giant pandas, numbering 80 altogether, now lives in southwest China's Sichuan Province, according to the Sichuan forestry bureau.

Experts have spared no efforts in tackling the endangered animals' breeding problems in recent years, resorting to artificial insemination, frozen semen and even showing the pandas videos on natural mating in the wild to arouse their latent sexual instincts.

The survival rate of panda cubs had risen from 30 percent several decades ago to 90 percent now as a result of modern methods to promote mating and feeding, said Deng Xiangsui, a director in the wildlife protection department of the province's forestry bureau.

Giant pandas show little instinctive behavior in captivity, especially sexual desire, essential for natural mating and conception.

Forestry authority statistics show fewer than 10 percent of male giant pandas mate naturally and fewer than 30 percent of females conceive naturally.

Two large semen banks have been set up at the Wolong Nature Reserve and a breeding center for pandas in Chengdu city.

By the end of 2002, Sichuan had bred 152 pandas of whom 80 had survived, since its first successful case in 1986.

Wolong Nature Reserve was set up in 1963 and is home to over 100 wild giant pandas, about one tenth of the country's total. There serve now keeps 70 pandas in captivity.

Well-known as the world's most endangered animals, some 1,000 giant pandas are living in the wild in China, scattered through the mountains of Sichuan, Shaanxi, Gansu and Qinghai provinces.

According to forestry authority statistics, about 110 giant pandas are being raised in artificial conditions worldwide.

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